Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My parents have recently gone plant-based (at least in their home, and eating better while out). We met up with them at the Michigan VegFest and they ended up buying a Vitamix. It was an awesome deal and I am so jealous. So I am going to go over one day to play. Anything specific I should make? Is there a website for vegan vitamix recipes? I will buy one next year if I like theirs. They got a great deal on the price and got a free small canister along with a recipe book. Plus the horsepower is apparently double what the most expensive Bed Bath and Beyond one is. Cool!

Congratulations on the arrival of your new sibling! I found a lot of stuff in the Vitamix book that came with mine, but I would be prepared to make lots of very smooth smoothies, you could try making nut butters.. I haven't tried it yet but there's a vegan nutella type spread recipe, I think...

I'm trying to think what I've made in mine recently. Mostly smoothies! But I also grind coffee in it, and made Robin Robertson's cashew-lemon fruit dip from Party Vegan.. Thai coconut-pumpkin curry soup can be made with pantry ingredients... There's a vitamix thread somewhere, too.

My favorite things to make with the vitamix are:

Frozen fruit ice creams, dump some frozen fruit, milk or yogurt and sweetener in the machine, and blend on high for instant fruity ice cream
Nut cheeses and creams. The texture gets very very smooth and creamy, especially if you use cashews
Nut and seed butters. I love pumpkin seed butter. Walnut cinnamon butter is also very good.
Raw soups. For instance gazpacho or carrot-avocado-ginger soup

-best hummus ever
-Silken tofu stuffs like AFR's Sanctuary Dressing

-smoothies
-dressings
-nut-based cheesecakes or cheese dips
-soups

I use mine primarily for smoothies and almond butter. Homemade almond butter is THE BEST. I just buy those packages of roasted almonds from TJ's for $5, and boom - 12 - 14 ounces of almond butter.

Thanks. I might try cashew cream sauce because we are used to eating gritty sauce right now. My kitchen ninja just doesn't do a good job on stuff like that even though I soak the cashews.

The Vitamix is super handy for handling gritty cashews. I never soak, which is great because its one less thing to plan ahead.
For the most part I echo what the others have to say: smoothies (nice for getting kale and flax seeds super ground up), hummus, soups, etc. I also use mine in lieu of a food processor, and while not ideal for really small batches (like curry pastes - you need to keep scraping the sides down because there just isn't enough there) I am able to avoid having yet another kitchen gadget (for now!).
My husband surprised me with mine and I believe he purchased through Costco and also received the free (or small add on $) dry canister, which has come in handy for making different kinds of flours in a pinch.

I've had mine for 8 months and made at least 15 batches of frozen margaritas. I've made a few smoothies and I made peanut butter and a VPITS cheesecake once. But mostly margaritas.

All of the recipes on my blog are vegetarian, and almost all are vegan. My favorite Vitamix recipes are here: http://joyofblending.com/vitamix-recipes/

Party at laura8it's!!

I made a sloe gin and raspberry jam sorbet in mine today. It was ace.

One of the things I was impressed with in the demo at the show where I bought mine was how the guy put raw carrots in and they got blended up to complete smoothness without a whimper - I often sneak carrots into sauces now and rejoice in not having to chop them up or eat them whole (yes I am a toothless crone, in spirit if not quite in fact yet!).